


I'll Be Calling You Mine

by orphan_account



Category: EXO (Band), K-pop
Genre: Alternate Canon, Fluff, M/M, Romance, Trainee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-11 10:28:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11146572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: There's a difference between eye candy and ear candy. In Jongin's opinion, Kyungsoo happens to be both.





	I'll Be Calling You Mine

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the story.
> 
> If you enjoy this, let me know!

Jongin said a lot of things he didn't really mean.

"CEO-nim! How cool would it be if I had a stage name? There are, like, a billion Kim's in the company right now." Plus Taemin, Jongin's best friend who'd just debuted with his real name in a group called Shinee, would be so jealous.

SM liked giving their artists stage names anyway—as a general rule of sorts—so trainee Kim Jongin quickly became trainee Kim Kai, and Jongin had to learn how to navigate his new name without the privilege of debut to accompany it. Half of his fellow Korean trainees thought he was just being a pompous ass who wanted to show off how close he was to the man in charge. The other half—namely Park Chanyeol—agreed that having a stage name was pretty cool indeed and more or less left him alone about it. As for the Chinese trainees, one Korean name was the same as any other in their books, at least until Zhang Yixing became Lay and Wu Yifan went back to being Kris. Not long after, those two were grouped with Kai, Chanyeol, and eight others into a group called EXO that was set to debut in less than six months.

"It's alright," Jongin brushed off his soon to be fellow members' concerns. "Lay-ssi's a great dancer; and I'm the visual of EXO anyway."

Lay had been chosen from among the trainees to dance as a temporary replacement on Shinee's current tour, and Jongin was trying really hard to not get bitter. He was doing a good job—and really did mean it when he complimented Lay's dancing ability—but then Chanyeol just had to speak up and ruin everything.

"You're too tan to be the visual, Kai-Jjong." Chanyeol's voice was teasing but his comment still cut a little deep and Jongin's harsh, but insincere, retaliation was out of his mouth before he could stop it.

"And you're too gangly to be an idol. You think someone your height can dance?" Honestly, he didn't really mean that and one look at the crumpled expression on Chanyeol's face made Jongin instantly regretful.

His mouth was halfway open and already forming the right syllables for an apology but then a quiet voice from someone sitting on the practice room floor behind them interrupted.

"Sungyeol-sunbaenim is tall too but Infinite is known for being an excellent dancing group."

Jongin turned around abruptly to look at the smaller boy whose large brown eyes were staring up at him. This wasn't the first time Jongin had met Kyungsoo—or, more accurately, Kai met D.O.—but the dancer had never heard the older trainee speak anything more than a polite hello.

"Infinite isn't from SM," Jongin countered because he was no less regretful toward his Chanyeol-hyung, but couldn't seem to let the topic go now that the other boy was involved. But all Jongin got for being argumentative was a conceding nod and an odd squint that looked a lot like a glare before the boy on the floor turned away again.

"I don't think I like that D.O.-ssi too much," Jongin confided to Suho some hours later once practice was over and the whole group was getting ready to go out for food. "Does he have to come with us?"

Secretly Suho didn't like D.O. too much either; he'd been glared at one too many times since the CEO had put them all together, and Suho took the looks as a sign of blatant disrespect for his new position as group leader. Suho took his leader-nim responsibility seriously enough to keep his feelings to himself, though, so Jongin got an earful.

"Soon we'll all be members, Kai. We need to learn to get along."

Jongin harrumphed with a pout that got their quiet maknae, Sehun, tittering at him, but he withheld further complaints even as D.O. squinted without restraint for the duration of the evening.

As EXO's debut date loomed, the group was split into K and M, and Kai soon found himself spending all of his time with the five other members of his subunit. He got to know all of them a lot better in a short amount of time, but especially D.O., who Jongin now fondly called Kyungsoo-hyung by request. He felt pretty awful for his first impression of Kyungsoo, then, when the elder was made one of EXO-K's main vocalists and had to get glasses for astigmatism in order to better read his music. Suddenly the glare-like squint was a thing of the past and Jongin had a lot of regret for once again saying something he didn't really mean and bad-mouthing Kyungsoo-hyung before they'd gotten close.

Kyungsoo in glasses didn't just remove the need for squinting and automatically make him look less mean; it also made him cuter and almost childlike to the point that Jongin sometimes forgot which of them was the hyung. When that sort of thing happened, Jongin's teasing sometimes got a little out of hand and a little too cheeky.

"You look like blind baby owl when you make that face, hyung."

He didn't really, but Jongin needed to say something to cover his real opinion on Kyungsoo's eyewear. And sometimes his jokes weren't even about the glasses because after a while Kyungsoo's attractiveness to Jongin expanded past how cute they made the older boy look.

"Who said your mouth looks like a heart? More like a blob, in my opinion."

That was entirely untruthful, but it wasn't like Jongin could just say what he really felt: "Omo, Kyungsoo-hyung, I love your lips. Please let me kiss them." Yeah, no. Kyungsoo was entirely too beautiful in Jongin's honest opinion, but they still barely knew each other and Jongin's appreciation was really only skin deep. Things went a little deeper whenever Jongin heard Kyungsoo sing, but Jongin was as insincere about that as he was about practically everything else.

Kyungsoo's singing voice made Jongin swoon but he was a man and men don't do that girly stuff. So what did Jongin say instead? "Our vocal line reminds me of that seagull from that mermaid Disney movie."

"Shut up, Kai." That was usually Baekhyun—or Chanyeol in the smaller boy's everlasting defense.

"What do you even know about singing anyway?" A lot of the time that was Chanyeol, too. "We rap."

"Actually, he just dances." Sehun, who did both in EXO—or would after debut—was always quick to point out his and Jongin's differences. "And it's The Little Mermaid, by the way."

Kyungsoo never said much of anything during these conversations, and Jongin always got the impression that his favorite hyung wasn't really listening. Either that or he just didn't care how Jongin felt about his singing because he didn't really care about Jongin.

Suddenly it was two weeks before EXO's debut and Jongin really hoped Kyungsoo cared about him at least a little but didn't have time to worry about it because when he wasn't practicing, Jongin was either eating or asleep. They all were, Kyungsoo included, and Jongin found he liked his hyung's looks a lot more when he didn't appear so exhausted behind the lens of his glasses. Kyungsoo's voice was as amazing as ever too, but it certainly cracked a little more than it used to during those couple weeks of non-stop preparation.

"You look really tired, hyung. You should get some rest."

Jongin was coming from a good place when he said this, but Kyungsoo seemed to take it the wrong way.

"We're all tired, Jongin-ah. I don't need rest anymore than you do."

Jongin disagreed with every fiber of his being and for once was actually honest about it.

"You're too beautiful to look this worn out, hyung. And if you keep pushing yourself this hard, you'll ruin your voice and then I'd be sad."

He couldn't believe his words even as he admitted them, but Kyungsoo was blushing and looking up at Jongin through long lashes.

"You think I'm beautiful?" He asked, sounding amazed and dubious at the same time.

Jongin nodded. "Your voice too. But I especially like your glasses," he added with an embarrassed cough and a blush of his own.

"You really mean that?" For some reason Kyungsoo was still unsure; but Jongin was being absolutely truthful. For once.

"I really do."


End file.
